Lockheed plans to cut 4,000 jobs

Decision could have ‘minor impact’ locally

Federal budget cuts continue to take their toll on Bethesda defense giant Lockheed Martin, as executives said Thursday they will cut 4,000 jobs by mid-2015.

The majority of reductions is expected to occur outside the Montgomery County-Washington, D.C., region. But there could be some “minor impact” locally, said Larisa Cioaca, a Lockheed spokeswoman.

“We have no additional specifics to share at this time,” Cioaca said.

Lockheed — Montgomery County’s and Maryland’s largest company by revenue with $47.2 billion in sales last year — plans to close facilities in Newtown, Pa.; Akron, Ohio; Goodyear, Ariz.; and Horizon City, Texas; along with four buildings in Sunnyvale, Calif. Those closures will result in about 2,000 fewer positions by mid-2015, CEO Marillyn Hewson said in a memo to employees.

An additional 2,000 jobs will be trimmed companywide from the Gaithersburg-based information systems and global solutions unit, the District-based mission system and training segment and the Denver-based space systems division. Those cuts are expected by the end of 2014.

The Denver operations should actually see 350 more jobs in a combination of transfers and new hires.

Hewson cited “an increasingly complex global security environment with rapidly shrinking budgets” in her memo. Lockheed’s customers “are expecting us to help them stay ahead of the threats by delivering innovative products and systems at the most affordable cost,” she said.

The federal government implemented across the board sequester budget cuts this year, and more spending reductions are expected next year.

Since late 2008, Lockheed has reduced facility space by 1.5 million square feet and slashed its worldwide workforce from 146,000 employees to 116,000 workers. The planned cuts will further reduce real estate by about 2.5 million square feet.

Lockheed had 5,200 employees in Montgomery County and 8,000 in Maryland as of late last year, according to Maryland DBED surveys. Lockheed was Montgomery’s third-largest private employer last year, with Adventist HealthCare and Marriott International having a few hundred more employees.

Despite the loss of employees in the past five years, Lockheed’s revenue increased by 15 percent in that time.

In fiscal 2012, Lockheed was the government’s largest single contractor with $37 billion in contract dollars obligated to the company, according to federal figures. Lockheed received about 82 percent of its revenue last year from the U.S. government, including 61 percent from the Department of Defense, according to its 2013 annual report. Some 17 percent came from international customers and 1 percent from private and other clients.